


Nothing That Can be Done About It

by Dillian



Series: Whittier Hospital [2]
Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: 1952, AU, And the Faint Feelings of Loss That You Get When You Don't Know What's Going On, And the Lack of Understanding of Death, Civilians at Home, Combat Death, Death, Gen, Homefront - Freeform, Korean War, Mental Hospital Setting, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-26
Updated: 2014-07-26
Packaged: 2018-02-10 12:45:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2025597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dillian/pseuds/Dillian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wrote this long story, called "Strong at the Broken Places."  It's a hugely long story, and it took me a little over a year to write it, and it tells the story of a boy named Loki, hospitalized at a private mental facility called Whittier Hospital.  There he forms a bond with another patient, Tony.  And for a while Tony is the healthier of the two, then Loki recovers, and finally he leaves Whittier, where Tony is still locked up, with no hope of ever being released.  And I promised a happy ending for that one...  I did my best, and I think the ending is ...reasonably happy.  But toward the end while I was writing it, I began to have dark inklings of how the story could end, a horrible, sad way that it could end.  And I knew I couldn't do that to the people who were reading "Strong," the people I'd promised a happy ending to...  I couldn't do it to myself, I wanted to see Tony get a few of the things he wanted so badly, and I wanted to give Loki the happiness of giving them to him.  So I ended that one the way I'd been planning to end it, the reasonably happy way.  But I told myself I'd come back and write out the dark ending too.  This is it, this is that dark ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nothing That Can be Done About It

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to get all the context you need for this story, right there into the story. But I was a history major in college, and sometimes I think people are going to know more about history than they do, just because I do, so let me give a little more context here:
> 
> Loki joined the military before the US joined World War II in December, 1941. I am putting him into the Navy, because the main thing we did in WWII before we'd joined officially was to send planes and other material to the Allied Nations. And I am sending him to the USSR because there was a spectacular disaster of one of the convoys we sent there in July of 1942, and a lot of servicemen, both Americans and British, were killed. Loki is to be understood as one of those who was killed, while with that, or with another convoy.
> 
> This happens about ten years before the time of the story, which takes place two days after Dwight Eisenhower was elected President, on Tuesday, November 4th, 1952. Eisenhower became President at the height of the Korean War, and one of his promises was that he would get involved and end that war. For the purpose of the story, I am giving Tony a newspaper that talks about a battle going on at the time, the Battle of Triangle Hill, in context of Eisenhower's election.
> 
> I hope that makes the story clear, and I hope no one feels like I condescended, by giving too much information. Please understand, that was not my intention.

“One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or of the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.”  
\-- F. Scott Fitzgerald, _Tender is the Night_

 

**_The Avengers_ , _Iron Man_ , and _Thor_ , and all situations and characters thereof, belong strictly and solely to Marvel Comics. This is a fan-work, meant for enjoyment only, and not for any material profit.**

Well sometimes you’re awake when they come in and sometimes you’re not. And this time Tony wasn’t, this time he slept very well, thank you very much. It’s called peace of mind, that’s the word for it, and when a fellow has it he should treasure it, because it’s not always going to be there. He is sleeping quite well, and then there’s a bang, and that’s the door opening, and here’s Happy’s voice. Happy is shouting, he’s saying, “Wake up fellows, it’s time to get up.”

It’s awfully nice when one can wake up on one’s own, and sometimes Tony gets to, sometimes Uncle Theo and Aunt Josie will take him out for a weekend visit and he can sleep in as long as he wants. Those are _nice_ times, and Tony will stay in their nice spare room. They call it Tony’s room, and Aunt Josie will say, “It’s _your_ room, Tony, your home away from home.” This means it’s his when he visits them, it doesn’t mean he is going to leave Whittier for good. And it has an awfully nice white chenille bedspread, and nice white curtains. And it has a nice picture of Loki in it, and Aunt Josie will always say, “His last picture, we wanted you to have it in here, Tony.”

Tony _has_ a picture of Loki. He keeps it in his wallet, Loki sent it to him right after he went overseas, and it shows Loki standing next to a very large ship. And Tony has quite a lot of letters. Loki used to be awfully good about sending letters, but lately he hasn’t been quite as good, or perhaps they are forgetting to give them to him.

…Well here comes Happy, and Happy shouts, “Wake up fellows, it’s time to get up.”

It’s important that one get up when they tell you to, because otherwise you’re being resistant and uncooperative, and it _will_ go into your file. And Tony gets out of bed. And Clint, that’s in the bed next to him gets up, and Parker gets up, and Bruce.

And Clint says, “Why the hell do they have to wake us up so damn early?”

Happy says, “Cafeteria sets the schedule, don’t blame me.”

Clint says, “You can tell the cafeteria to stick their schedule where the sun don’t shine.”

And Happy says, “You want to be uncooperative, that’s your choice, Clint, look, Tony’s getting up, and Parker, and Bruce.”

And Clint says, “I am getting up,” and he gets up.

Well Tony is already up of course, and he’s down the hall, and he’s waiting for a chance at the bathroom. The bathroom is really beneath one’s dignity, because there are no doors on the stalls, and you have to ask the orderly for toilet paper. And baths are once a week, if you want to get clean in the meantime, well you’d better have soap, because the dispensers by the sink are always going to be empty, and you’d better remember to bring a towel. And there are fellows at the sinks already when Tony gets in there, he’d better settle for being dirty today. But Rhodey is the orderly on duty, and he says, “You want toilet paper, Tony? Here, I’ll give you extra.”

Tony has been trying awfully hard to keep his nose clean lately. That’s how you get favors in this place, is you keep your nose clean, you behave yourself, and then the orderlies will like you, and they’ll give you things. And Tony has been behaving himself, and see? It pays off, and here’s Rhodey giving him a whole handful of paper, instead of two squares like the other fellows.

And Tony takes the paper, and he uses it. And he saves some of it to dry his hands, and there’s enough so he can wash his face too. And after that, he goes out, and there’s the rack with their clothes on it. And Tony takes his shirt and his trousers, and he puts them on, and he puts on his shoes.

And after that it’s time for breakfast, and after breakfast, of course you go back to the ward. And here’s the calendar. Tony stops at the calendar, because it’s important to keep track of what day it is. Loki said that, he said that… Well, it was a while ago that he said it, because Loki has been overseas an awfully long time now, he’s fighting to defeat the Nazis, because the Nazis killed his family, and they took over Germany, which is where Loki lived before he came here. Loki always says, “Tony, you’ve got to try your best, I want you to keep your nose clean, Tony, because then you can get a weekend pass, the first thing I’m going to do when I get back, Tony, is I’m going to take you out and we’ll have a whole weekend together.” Loki is a good friend, and it will be awfully nice to spend a weekend with him soon.

And here’s the calendar. And the picture is a fellow in a Pilgrim hat, and he’s got one of those guns. And he’s aiming into the bushes, but that isn’t a turkey in the bushes. It’s a girl in there, and she’s bending over, and… Oh dear, that girl’s entire _bottom_ shows, and all she has on is a terribly small swimsuit, and there are _feathers_ attached to her… Really, they oughtn’t to have calendars like that here, this is a hospital, there are sick fellows here, and that picture will make them all excited.

And Tony _doesn’t_ want to look at that calendar, and he says, “I don’t like these cheesecake calendars.”

Here’s Jarvis, and Jarvis says, “You have to look at the calendar Tony, it’s important.”

But Tony doesn’t want to look at that calendar, and he says, “I don’t like these cheesecake calendars.”

And Jarvis says, “You have to look,” and Tony looks.

It’s Thursday, is what it is. It’s Thursday, November 6th.

Tony says, “There, I looked, are you happy?”

And here’s Rhodey. Rhodey says, “Fine day today.” He says, “You should be happy Tony, on such a fine day, and perhaps you can go for a walk outside later on.”

Tony has grounds privileges. He’s been keeping his nose awfully clean lately, and he has grounds privileges, he can go anyplace he wants on the hospital grounds, and all he has to do is ask one of the orderlies to unlock the door for him first. And perhaps he will go outside today, it’s a fine day and not very cold, and some of the fellows on Three are nice to go outside with. Perhaps he’ll go with Parker, and perhaps Bruce will want to go too. Bruce can be very nice to spend time with, as long as the Other Guy doesn’t come out.

And Tony goes on into the dayroom. And here’s Parker, and Tony says, “Say Parker, would you like to go outside?”

But Parker doesn’t want to go outside. Parker has a newspaper, and he doesn’t want to go outside, and he says, “Leave me alone, don’t you see I’m reading my newspaper, and perhaps if you behave yourself Tony, I will let you read it next.”

And here’s Bruce. Bruce says, “Parker, that newspaper says Wednesday, that is yesterday’s newspaper.” And he says, “Who wants to read yesterday’s newspaper?”

Parker says, “This is news is still very good, and you wouldn’t know good news if it bit you.”

Bruce says, “Who are you to talk about biting, you want to see some biting, Parker?”

Parker says, “You know who bites, is spiders, spiders bite, Bruce.”

And someone says, “Settle down,” and it’s Happy, Happy says, “Settle down you fellows, all of you.”

And Jarvis says, “Those fellows are getting upset.” Tony doesn’t like to think about that. Upset is not a good place to be, you get upset, and then you can’t get down again. And Jarvis says, “You don’t have to be upset, Tony, you can be downset, let’s go out by the nurse’s station, where things are quiet.”

And Tony wants to go outside, oh, how he’d like to go outside, but he can’t go outside, his jacket isn’t here. (And people are getting upset here, and it’s getting harder to get down.)

And Happy says, “Rhodey, a little help here,” and, “I’m taking that paper Parker, before you rip it.” And there are thudding feet, there are loud thudding feet, and _something_ grabs Tony’s arm, and it’s a hand, it’s Happy’s hand, and Happy says, “Let’s you and me step out into the hallway, Tony.”

There are noises in the hallway too, but they’re quieter noises, and there’s a nice smell of coffee, coming from the nurse’s station. Happy says, “Here, why don’t you read this?” and he gives Tony something, and it’s a newspaper, it’s Parker’s newspaper.

And Tony _doesn’t_ want to read that newspaper. (But what does he want to do?)

And Happy says, “You been doing so good Tony, I don’t want to see you blow it.” And he says, “Here, why don’t you settle down and read, and I’ll get you some nice coffee?”

And Tony settles down, and he reads the paper. And the picture is soldiers in uniforms, on a mountain. And the story says, “Heavy combat near the Korean Demilitarized Zone,” and it says, “Eisenhower’s election is seen by some as a turning point.” The combat there is very heavy, apparently. And this is soldiers on foot doing the fighting, infantrymen they’re called, and they’re on a hill somewhere. This is not where Loki is, because he is at sea, on a ship, he is helping the Allies bring cargo to the Soviet Union, because he said so, in a letter.

And here’s Happy, he’s got a cup of coffee for Tony. And it’s _black_ coffee, you don’t get it black very often here, usually they’ll put cream and sugar in it, whether you want it or not, and it smells awfully good.

And Tony takes the coffee, and the cup is nice and warm in his hand. And he says, “This newspaper says the combat is very heavy.” 

Happy says, “That’s in Korea Tony, it’s not here.”

Sometimes it seems like they think you’re stupid around this place. It seems like they always think that. And Tony says, “I know that.” And he says, “That’s not where Loki is, is it?”

And then it seems like Happy doesn’t say anything for a minute, and then he says, “No Tony, that’s not where Loki is.”

And it seems like Tony knew that already… He _did_ know that, didn’t he? Didn’t Loki’s letters _say_ where he is? He’s on a ship, and it’s a minesweeper ship, they’re taking US equipment to the Soviet Union, which means Russia, it’s another word for Russia. And there are U-Boats sometimes, you have to watch out for those, but Loki isn’t afraid of them, he says if he just gets the chance, he’ll kill his weight in Nazis. This one in the paper is a different war, and it’s someplace else, someplace near the militarized zone in Korea.

And Tony says, “I’m glad Loki isn’t there, because the combat is awfully heavy there.”

And Happy says, “Yes, you can be glad of that anyway, Tony.”

And Tony sits there in the hallway, and he drinks his coffee. And after he finishes reading about the heavy combat, he turns over and he reads the funny pages. It’s going to be nice when Loki comes home, and they can have their weekend together, but right now is all right too, right now he’s got a newspaper that is almost new, and when he finishes his coffee, well Happy brings him some more.


End file.
